Pisa and a few more of Italy

Some old e-mails

From Derek to Megan (and everyone else)- I don’t know what the question was about…but that’s not really the important part, it’s just a good description of everyone in our family (at the time, which was about 9 years ago, so we’re missing several in-laws and twenty-something grandkids) according to Derek:

To megan,
  You never  know anything because i am the smart one in the family, you and ethan are the nerds of the family.  Unfortunately now that i think about it andrea is a nerd also, oh yeah kayli, kami, lindsay,and amy also.  I will not even try to describe what wyatt is,  but lucky for you all, you can hang out with me and my cool family during christmas and maybe some of it will rub off on you.  It is lucky for the ones with kids, that their kids are cool (danica,myles,olivia,megan). I would say jared is pretty cool except his dolphins just beat my broncos, i guess it doesn't matter since the broncos stink this year.  Go byu, and und, my school is in the ncaa championship game for football (not hockey  wow). I guess Brett is pretty cool except that he married a red head. And Tim is pretty cool but he is going to marry a red head and it's Andrea. Anyways i am so smart i will now stop writing this email.  bye bye adios hasta la vista mis hermanos locos
            derek

Just a little tidbit I found in an e-mail I had written someone:

Last night Mom was wrestling with Wyatt and then Dad jumped in and started biting mom's nose, then there were hickeys involved, and a watch got broken, etc. etc.  Lots of fun.  Mom said to dad, "Why are you so jumpy? I'm just trying to kiss you."  And dad said "Never trust a woman with her lips out, she always wants something." 

My question is, what about a man with his lips out?

This was from an e-mail I sent Brett when we were far away from each other at Christmas time, right before he officially proposed:

I was dying tonight of missing you, and then Dad and Derek were teasing me and were playing "charades" of how they think you will propose.  It was not nice.  First, I had my feet up on the table, and Dad said, "I'm Brett, and your foot is you."  To which he picked up my foot and started kissing it.  Yes, he is a weird, insane little man.  So then I ran away, and he said "Is that what you do when Brett kisses you?"  Then he grabbed my arm and kept hitting his head against my shoulder while repeating "please marry me, please, please."
Quite frankly, it was frightening.  Then later on, Derek knelt down and said "Kayli, if you marry me I'll...be married to a redhead for the rest of my life." 

Do you realize what I had to put up with my whole life?

Me, through the years, and some commentary.

For no good reason (except maybe that I’m up far too late for no, umm, good reason) I give you some pictures of myself through the years.

Me (in the highchair), Megan, and Kami. I was a hoot (so I’m told). Seeing some of my mom’s bread sliced on the table makes me want some. I love toddler playing the piano pictures, particularly in underwear. Me and Dad. Me and Dad. These piggies are so cute, I must say. I think Ethne’s hair is a lot lighter than mine ever was. That was my favorite t-shirt. I think my sister Megan got it for me from Waterton when she worked there. Weird face. Me and Kami. My legs actually look like they have somewhat of a tan… how did that happen? Those were my favorite shoes. I think my dad picked them out for me. He's a good shoe picker. (And nose picker.) How old do I look here? I was in highschool… I think maybe 14 or 15. Me and Kami and Pinky (hooray—I finally got contacts and learned to apply mascara, which has been my faithful friend since (not that you can really tell in this picture)). I loved this shirt. It was a hand-me-down from one of my older sisters (Amy, I think). Brett hated it. It had some kind of African picture on the front. I just liked how comfy it was. When we got married, we each picked one item of clothing of the other’s that they had to throw away. He picked this shirt. It was sad. Not that you can see it in this picture. Me and Wyatt. He was so little then! Now he’s all big and married and has kids of his own. But he still likes to harass me.

Senior picture (except that I never was a senior…but still).

Wedding day (in the hotel, opening a lovely pearl necklace from Megan. Thanks Megan!) . In May. In the years since I got married, I have entered my twenties, learned how to use eyeliner and pluck my brows, slimmed down a little in the face, started getting a some wrinkles, and dare I say—look a little bit more like I’m a real adult. (I like this picture. Brett always mocks me when I take pictures of myself in the bathroom mirror, but you can tilt your head to your best advantage, make sure you’re not doing a lame smile, and hey-I don’t see many other people taking pictures of me. p.s. my skin doesn’t look this nice in real life- I retouch out all my zits.) The end.

Just enjoy the show…

I got a little carried away the other day taking pictures of my funny, cute, crazy girls.  So obviously I couldn’t narrow them down any, so I made a little slideshow so you can see them all!  Lucky you.  :)

Here are my favorites of each for the day:

And the show (you can click on the arrows on the bottom right corner, next to the word vimeo and it will make it bigger for you):

Just enjoy the show... from Kayli Bell on Vimeo.

p.s. I took a LONG time curling their hair that morning and used lots of hairspray, and in about 10 minutes you could not even tell that it had been curled.  What am I doing wrong?  I need my pink sponge curlers that are packed in a box somewhere!!

Hallo

So, I’ve been having a fun week. On Monday we had a little FHE about helping others, including a little object lesson where I had Jethro kneel down on all fours and then I put a cup full of water on his back and told him to stand up (obviously without spilling the water). We gave him a while to sit there and “try.” And Brett helped spill the water on him as he moved (so it wouldn’t get ALL over). Then of course, we asked him if he needed help. Talmage LOVED this and pointed to the cup and each person until everyone had had the cup on his head (it had morphed into the top of our heads instead of our backs). Then we played some Uno because Brett had brought home a pack of cards from the store that day. And we had BEAUTIFUL, DELICIOUS homemade raspberry icecream. (Recipe here, called Texas Peach Icecream. Since I have a teeny freezer I put it into a zip-lock bag and just squished it around every so often. DELICIOUS I promise!)

On Tuesday, we had a babysitter come and Brett and I went swimming in the Aare (the river that loops around Bern) with a friend from our ward. We had gone in before and I LOVED it, but it was a very short little spot by the Marzili pool in Bern. Our friend showed us a way cooler spot where the river kindof goes in a U-shape, and there’s a tunnel underground that cuts across, so you end up having a long float time (~15 min), for a very short walking time. It was soooooo great! I love love love swimming in natural water- lakes, rivers, oceans- so anytime I can I feel so happy. This is particularly neat because the current is REALLY fast, and you get swept along with it. There are some places where the current goes around and comes back on itself, and it’s pretty wild. We floated the route twice, and I was glad Brett had brought along a little blow-up toy thingee, cause on the second run I stole it from him for quite a while. I couldn’t believe how sore my arms were when I got home. It took a lot to keep up! It was SOO fun.

Here are the only pictures I snapped, just of some random people coming down right where we got out (after we went under the bridge). I wish I could somehow have my camera with me as we swim, because we go through some really beautiful beautiful spots. (Have you noticed I keep repeating words and using parenthesis? (awesome awesome)) To sum up, it’s cold, it’s fast, it’s thrilling. Try it.

And yesterday some friends came for dinner that we last saw in Chicago, Illinois. See, they were actually my sister’s friends first, but we would occasionally hang out with them too, when we went to visit Kami in Chicago. In fact, we did quite a lot with them, like going to parades, car shows, New Year’s Eve dinners and the like. Then they moved back to France (Thomas is from France and Jenny is from England), and are visiting Switzerland, so we stole them. It was really really fun, and I made more homemade icecream (peach and strawberry this time, mmmmm). We are planning to see them again and perhaps take them swimming in the Aare. :)

And here is a little video of my adorable son, showing off each and every word that he knows- oh, I take that back, he also can say ‘loo’ for hello. I like how he starts to sing, then decides to be ornery instead. I love him!

Talmage from Kayli Bell on Vimeo.

And also, because many of you said you couldn’t get it to work, the video of Hazel’s kindergarten class singing Happy Birthday to her.

Singing to Hazel from Kayli Bell on Vimeo.

Florence, Italy

Florence/Firenze -- Beautiful. Hot. Lush. Lots of naked people. Or statues, rather.

Venice

Perhaps I should explain a little. The last two weeks Brett’s mom and bro and sister came and we went on a whirlwind tour of a few countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland to be exact), so here are some shots I took, and later I’ll fill in with some more people pictures and detail. :)